


Magnus Ain't Afraid of No Ghost

by Fluxx



Series: The Spook Cruise, 2017 [7]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Shadowhunter Chronicles - All Media Types
Genre: Ghost Hunters, Ghosts, Halloween, M/M, Magnus and Alec vanquish a ghost!, Magnus is reckless, Malec, and is now Not Pleased™, but Alec protects his boyfriend
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-16
Updated: 2017-10-16
Packaged: 2019-01-18 00:59:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12377622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fluxx/pseuds/Fluxx
Summary: A wraith is wreaking havoc upon a helpless Mundane neighborhood. Luckily, Magnus and Alec come to the rescue! After getting the Mundane to safety, they turn their sights to the forest, intent on vanquishing the not-so-departed spirit before it can harm anyone else. Magnus knows a way to draw it out, but Alec's notquitesold on the idea...Prompt response for The Spook Cruise, 2017:Malec + Ghost Hunting.Submit a prompt for The Spook Cruise!





	Magnus Ain't Afraid of No Ghost

**Author's Note:**

  * For [gracie_the_shadow_writer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gracie_the_shadow_writer/gifts).



Alec ran up behind Magnus, laying a hand upon his boyfriend’s shoulder to signal his arrival. “By the Angel,” he breathed in a horrified awe, beholding the nightmare before them.

Magnus’s teeth were grit, hands spread before him. A steady stream of intense red-orange magic pulsed out of his palms, slamming around the crumbling house in powerful wave. He struggled as best he could to maintain a barrier and keep the structure upright, the strain of such an effort clear in the tiny beads of sweat forming all across his skin. “Mundane,” he grunted, pushing forward to send a renewed blast of energy into his barrier.

Alec’s eyes widened upon him. “What?!” he cried, but before Magnus could so much as consider elaborating he was already pulling his stele from his jacket and igniting his Speed rune. He slipped through the barrier easily enough - it was, after all, meant to contain rather than block - and disappeared behind the house’s splintered walls.

Ultimately, barely a minute passed, but to Magnus it felt like hours, his breathing growing steadily more and more labored as he renewed his efforts. Every second he couldn’t see Alec worsened the risk his magic would give out and he’d drop too many tons of wood, cement, metal, and glass upon his boyfriend, nevermind the helpless Mundane Alec was trying to extract. When the lithe young man at last  _did_  reappear, a fainted woman limp in his arms, Magnus forced himself to endure just a few more seconds, just long enough for the pair to clear the house completely, then at last released his spell and collapsed upon the ground, the building following suit at Alec’s heels.

As soon as he was clear of the crumbling debris, Alec sank to his knees and laid the woman in his arms upon the grass lawn. Quickly, he glanced up to search for Magnus, a relieved sigh escaping amid his rapid breathing when he found the Warlock on his hands and knees staring right back at him. He parted his lips to ask about the house, but before he could the answer sounded behind him.

A horrific wail tore through the air, splitting the night in two and forcing both men to cover their ears in agony. They turned their heads just in time to catch a streak of dark blue-grey tear out of the house’s remains and into a nearby thick of woods. The streetlights were lit all up and down the otherwise quaint avenue, soon joined by household after household as surrounding families woke from the disturbance.

Alec clenched his teeth and barreled towards Magnus, scooping him up in his strong arms to guide,  _drag_  if he had to, his boyfriend into the precarious cover provided by the woods’ edge. Only once they’d ducked behind the low brush lining the outermost trees did Alec pause to at last examine Magnus,  _truly_  examine him, then pull him into a tight hug upon finding him unharmed.

“Magnus, what  _was_  that thing?” Alec breathed against Magnus’s cuffed ear, his hand preciously buried amid the Warlock’s tousled locks.

Magnus leaned into Alec’s chest, silently thanking whatever powers had been at work to prolong his magic and get Alec out of the house in time. “Ghost,” he murmured between recovering breaths.

Alec loosened his grip just enough to sit back and look Magnus in the eye. Bewilderment consumed his face, furrowing his brow. “How can that be? Ghosts are supposed to be mostly benign - a little mischief here and there, but nothing like…” At a loss for words, he simply glanced towards the pile of rubble across the street.

“Wraith, more specifically,” Magnus elaborated, at last beginning to catch his breath. He twisted a bit to glance over his shoulder, regarding the destroyed lot with irritation. “They’re far more troublesome than mere ghosts, formed when the deceased suffers particularly intense emotions. Those emotions are the only thing which power and drive the resulting spirit. It makes them volatile and, unfortunately, unable to be reasoned with.”

“So how do we deal with it?” Alec resignedly sighed, turning to search the surrounding woods. “They’re still incorporeal, right?”

“Yes, but the very same emotions which form them also bind them to our world  _just_  enough to become vulnerable.” He nodded to the quiver attached to Alec’s back. “Your Angelically-charmed arrowheads, for example, would be able to finish the cross between the physical and ethereal realms.” A vacancy occupied his boyfriend’s stare, so he restated in simpler terms, “You can shoot it.”

Alec’s face immediately brightened at the news. “Oh. Well, that’s good.” He got to his feet, extending a hand to help Magnus up as well. As he did, he recalled what little he’d seen of the anguished soul, his mood steadily deflating. “I wonder what happened to make them that way.”

Magnus offered a sympathetic smile, comforting his boyfriend as best he could with a firm grasp of his shoulder. “It could be any of a number of things. Best not to think on it too much. At the end of the day, no matter what events brought this wraith into being, it doesn’t belong here, and if we don’t dispatch it a lot of Mundanes could be in trouble.”

He was right, of course, but it didn’t really make Alec feel much better about it. His hand lifted Magnus’s from his shoulder and shifted around to intertwine their fingers, then he turned to regard the dense woods stretching out before them. “We’d better hurry. Hopefully, it hasn’t gone too far.”

With Alec’s hand held tight in his, Magnus led the way deeper into the forest, his free hand lifting and curling small tendrils of soft blue magic in the air before him. “I doubt it. That thing expelled a lot of energy struggling against my barrier. If I’m right...” He looked down to his hand, or more specifically the tiny orb which had formed upon his palm. Alec gazed at it in wonder, and with a smile Magnus lightly tossed it into the air before them. “...Without something actively agitating it, it should be lingering somewhere in these woods, replenishing its stores before its next tantrum.”

The small orb floated along through the woods, twisting and weaving around the trees as it sought out the wraith’s ethereal energy. It reminded him of the Mundanes’ myths of will-o'-the-wisps, drifting deeper and deeper into dense forests in their strange and eerie beauty, and distantly he wondered if spells like this one were the very origin of such tales. Just as in those stories, Alec and Magnus followed eagerly along, hoping to find something at the end of the trail. Unlike those stories, what they sought was far from some kind of wish or benevolent spirit, though they were just as likely as those travelers to be met with ruin.

Suddenly, Magnus threw out his arm to stop Alec in his tracks. The orb had begun to swell - before it could, Magnus whipped his hand around and clenched it into a fist, the orb snuffing out like he’d capped off the air from a burning candle. Alec’s lips parted to question Magnus, but soon found ringed fingers raised before his lips.

“There,” Magnus whispered, moving his hand to point through the surrounding darkness.

Alec had to squint, but eventually his eyes adjusted to the dark and caught a subtle shift of faint light, moving subtly behind a cluster of distant trees. He nodded, confirming he saw the wraith, then slowly unhitched his bow from its strap and drew an arrow from his quiver. “My aim’s good, but not  _that_  good,” he muttered lowly. “Doesn’t help I’m not really sure what I’m aiming at.”

“Any strand of light,” Magnus murmured, carefully stepping away from Alec. His fingertips rubbed together, as if they themselves were contemplating which spell they’d employ. “Those are the places where it’s closest to physical presence.”

Alec was only half paying attention. “Where are you going?!” he hissed, arrow half-knocked upon his bow.

Magnus waved for him to relax. “Those trees are in your way, right?” His fingers tensed, curled in a claw-like fashion and bringing white-hot power sparking between them. “If I grab its attention and draw it out—”

“You mean  _agitate_  it, right?” Alec twisted around to glare at Magnus, but his boyfriend wasn’t looking his way, eyes focused upon the wraith. “Magnus.  _Magnus_! Your magic is low! If that thing attacks you—”

“Then you’ll protect me,” Magnus finished with such abrupt and unabashed certainty it honestly caught Alec off guard. Before his boyfriend could say anything more, Magnus threw out his hand, firing a bolt of energy zig-zagging towards the wraith and crashing into a nearby tree. “Hey!” he yelled, making sure the wraith knew  _exactly_  where the attack had come from. “Over here!!!”

It worked, the wraith releasing a horrible shriek and snapping away from its momentary stasis.

“Damn it, Magnus!” Alec muttered, scrambling to right his grip upon his arrow and lodge it into place along his bow.

"Volatile” had been an understatement. The wraith was far faster, far defter, far  _angrier_  than any ghost Alec had ever seen. Though it remained difficult for Alec to perceive in the darkness, the way it burst relentlessly through branch after helpless branch betrayed the path of its charge. It closed the distance in barely an instant, focused wholly upon Magnus and intent on delivering the full brunt of its rage upon the magically-drained Warlock.

Still, Magnus threw out another shock of magic, and then another, doing what little he could to keep the wraith along a straight and predictable path. Only a few shots in, he already found himself out of breath, collapsing to his knees with just faint traces of magic still licking his fingertips.

Alec wanted to cry out, but bit his tongue to keep himself silent. If he distracted the wraith, Magnus’s efforts would be for naught. He lifted his bow and narrowed his brow, keen eyes keeping a sharp lookout on Magnus’s position.

Closer, closer... The wraith broke free of the nearest trees, mangled arms raised and mouth stretched out amid another blood-curdling cry.

Magnus looked up, eyes wide. His breath hitched, and his body tensed, and the very last remnants of his magic flickered to life upon his palms.

The glint of metal sliced the air, hardly a foot away from Magnus’s face. Acting on impulse, his legs kicked him back from the piercing motion. The forest’s floor of dense soil, fallen leaves, and snapped twigs unceremoniously greeted him...

...but not the wraith.

Magnus turned, chest heaving, to stare at the tree beside him. Alec’s arrow was still rigidly wriggling back-and-forth from where it’d sunk through the bark. A few sparse flecks of ashy blue fell like lazy snow around the arrow - the last remnants of the wraith.

Alec fell to his knees beside him, arms thrown around Magnus and face buried against his neck. “ _Damn_  it, Magnus,” Alec cursed again, hands gripping their holds of his boyfriend tightly enough to whiten his knuckles. “Why did you do that?!”

Magnus’s breath released in a sigh, and he leaned into Alec’s body. “I’m sorry I worried you, Alexander,” he chuckled, a hand lifting to lay lovingly along Alec’s forearm. With a gentle tap, he got Alec to loosen up just enough so he could pull away and regard Alec with a wide, knowing grin. “But, it worked, didn’t it?”

Alec glared at him. “I’m not letting you out of my sight for the next week,  _at least_.”

“I look forward to every day of it, my dear!”


End file.
